ESSAY Robert Trogman's Revival of Handel Gothic

DESN2100 Project 2: ESSAY Robert Trogman’s Revival of Handel Gothic MELISSA FURINA c3126213 MELISSA FURINA 4th May 2012 I hereby certify that the work embodied in this thesis is the result of original research and has not been submitted for another course at Newcastle or any other University or Institution. Signed: 2 MELISSA FURINA 4th May 2012 Robert Trogman is known for his design of the font Handel Gothic, where is it used and how is it that we have seen it many times, but not know who designed it and what name it goes by? 3 MELISSA FURINA 4th May 2012 INTRODUCING: ROBERT TROGMAN In the 1960s Robert Trogman brought the revolutionary typeface Handel Gothic into the limelight and within the next thirty years a whole new world of typography design opened doors in his path. You may have never heard of the name but I can guarantee you’ve seen this typeface more than twice. Making its appearance in logos of renowned companies world wide many of Robert Trogman’s other typefaces have also been employed in company logos alongside Handel Gothic. Making such a huge impact in the corporate world, it must be asked why people do not know the name of this typeface. Typographer: Robert Trogman Why is it we can recognise Helvetica or Comic Sans but not (FotoStar – Robert Trogman, 2012) Handel Gothic who earns the right to be just as famous? To answer these queries we must start from the ground and work our way up. The first question is: who is Robert Trogman? Setting the scene in California in 1943, at the ripe age of 14 years old, Robert Trogman initially began working as an apprentice in a composing room – a room at a type foundry in which the type for pages were assembled. (McIntyre, 2011) Adding to his resume, Trogman also moonlighted at LA Type in 1944 while World War Two was in progress while simultaneously attending high school. LA Type was a college press and it was here that Trogman worked for Richard Hoffman who was a professor in graphic arts and a book designer in California. (Howell, 2012) Due to the propaganda for the war the LA Type the foundry was able to receive matrices for a typeface named Times Roman. Matrices were moulds that had letters engraved in to them for hot metal was poured into. These templates were to make individual letters for printing. Robert Trogman would soon become the first person to typecast the revolutionary Times Roman in the United States. (Trogman, 2007) 4 MELISSA FURINA 4th May 2012 Inspired by Richard Hoffman’s designs Trogman subsequently enrolled at the University of California situated in Santa Barbara where he took lithography as a course. Following this Trogman worked at a lithography plant as a typographer all the while carrying the workload of a full time student. (Trogman, 2012) During his career he worked alongside some of the most famous designers including Herb Rosenthal and Charles Eames who is notorious for his, and his wife’s, design of the Eames Lounge and Ottoman. For two and a half years Robert Trogman also worked with the legendary Saul Bass famed for creating an entire industry for motion picture title sequence design. (Trogman, 2008) Around 1962 Robert Trogman started creating fonts and soon his commercial career began to take flight. Art Nouveau typefaces were reintroduced and Trogman had the opportunity to bring many of his original designs from his extensive collection to the table. These typefaces set the foundations for Robert Trogman’s firm called Facsimile Fonts, an international business and a part of the company Fotostar International a business that created over 5000 fonts for film. The introduction of technology lead to the termination of these businesses as expressed by Trogman, “… and then when the Mac came along it just gobbled up everything.” This marked the point of retirement for Trogman in 1996. Inevitably, Trogman currently uses modern technology for small design jobs. After this Trogman moved to the desert with his wife where he wrote for fifteen years and owned a letterpress plant which featured a linotype, a Ludlow and a Heidelberg. Sadly, after two years Trogman gave up his hobby, as the rent was too expensive to store his machines. (Trogman, 2012) Today Robert Trogman resides in Palm Springs, California where he still part-takes in little design jobs using his two Macs and a combination of his six printers. He devises newsletters for his local church and library as well as designing business cards and his own Christmas cards. He also composes three newsletters a month for his local American legion, the equivalent to our RSL clubs. 5 MELISSA FURINA 4th May 2012 HANDEL GOTHIC The origins of Handel Gothic and it’s original creator reveal much about why we have seen the typeface many times in various logo and in media but do not know any history about it and not even it’s name. Handel Gothic is a geometric sans-serif typeface, which was acquired by Robert Trogman around 1960-1962. (William, 1994) At that time Robert Trogman was creating typefaces working with Saul Bass in his design studio when he crossed paths with Don Handel, a graphic designer. The roots of Handel Gothic derive from Don Handel’s creation of the Continental Gothic typeface. Handel Gothic (Mcdonald, 2012) Before Trogman obtained Continental Gothic, Don Handel submitted it to the Visual Graphics Design Corporation, a large firm that produced typefaces in New York. Looking for new talent, the firm was currently holding a typeface design contest in New York. An expert team of critiques turned down Handel’s design and after this he approached Trogman and asked, “What do you think of it? Do you think it has any worth?” (Trogman, 2012) With no further use he handed the reigns of the original typeface to Trogman where it would then be added to his commercial font library. Confident of the Visual Graphics Design Corporation’s regret, Trogman states, “Today you probably see more Handel Gothic than I could ever imagine.” (2012) 6 MELISSA FURINA 4th May 2012 From here Robert Trogman renamed it Handel Gothic giving credit to Don Handel and developed it in two weights being the regular Handel Gothic and a lightweight variety, which would therefore be known as Handel Gothic Light. Upon questioning Mr Trogman on why he thought the typeface was rejected, he stated that Continental Gothic was rejected because the man that designed it did not have a name: “You see nobody knew him and in those days you had to be a big shot in New York and I was very disappointed and I used to go to New York on business trips, I thought how little they knew.” (Trogman, 2012) Visual Graphics Design did not believe Continental Gothic had a purpose and because things were not digitised at the time acquiring a font family was a lengthy process. You had to purchase the type or you had to buy the film font but essentially the firm did not understand how to use it. I believe that the rejection of Continental Gothic on their part gives reason as to why the typeface is not as well recognised, as it should be. There was potential to make Don Handel and his typeface notorious but because Don Handel himself was not well known, and that the contest judges didn’t know what to do with such a design this concept of fame was left alone. Handel Gothic is Trogman’s most plagiarised piece of work after it was digitised and converted for use on a computer. Years onward with the incorporation of technology Trogman stated, “I have never received any royalties or even recognition for the introduction to the public”. (2012) In the United States, congress declared a typeface an alphabet and therefore an alphabet by law became public domain. Due to the existence of this law typefaces could not be protected in America. With this in mind Trogman made a swift move and released his alphabets overseas in Europe. 7 MELISSA FURINA 4th May 2012 WHERE IS IT USED? Handel Gothic is seen frequently in the public domain, most notably in logo design. It is used in various projects including the logos for Alcoa Aluminium, Continental Airlines and Lori’s Foods. Most significantly, Handel Gothic is most famously displayed on the side of an aluminium can. It was the chosen typeface for the Pepsi logo utilised for thirty years from 1973-2003. Pepsi Logo Don Handel’s typeface has also made countless (Dolphin, 2011) occurrences in television and film including Star Trek’s opening credits, Sesame Street’s Friday ending credits and Knight Rider’s opening credits. Adding to it’s resume the font family has also acted in numerous logos of television and film based companies including TV Patrol, BPM:TV, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, National CineMedia and more recently Pixar’s Wall-E. It has also been employed in video game titles for Mass Effect and Quake Live. Furthermore, Handel Gothic has also been associated in projects involving AT&T and is used to display the badge model number for the Volvo 740 GL. With that said, Handel Gothic has had its fare share of fame where it has been recognised for it’s dynamic design. The design of Handel Gothic has such a timeless element to it. For the 1960s it was most definitely a modern work of art but even in this day and age Handel Gothic still retains this quality, which makes it work so well in designs and logos.

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